With Hairston, it's all hands on board

GREENSBORO — P.J. Hairston’s mother was holding his right hand in the training room.

The other, his gashed left hand, was a source of spiking pain and extreme nervousness.

“Last night, I thought I was going to die, honestly,” the North Carolina swingman said Saturday. “As soon as the soap and the alcohol touched me, I kind of screamed for my life.”

In the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals, Hairston’s nasty cut between the webbing of his middle and ring fingers required eight stitches — and sent his availability for the rest of the tournament hurtling into doubt.

But the sophomore from here in Greensboro played in Saturday’s semifinal victory against Maryland, starting and scoring 13 points (on 3-for-10 shooting from the field) while logging a career-high 36 minutes with his left hand wielding an assortment of tape, bandages and padding.

“It could not have been easy to play with that,” point guard Marcus Paige said, “but he comes out and makes his first two shots and gives us some momentum. To have him out there was big for us.”

Hairston said taking pain medicine left him feeling fine, other than some soreness, when he woke up Saturday. In the locker room before the Tar Heels stepped on the Greensboro Coliseum court for pregame warm-ups, he threw passes back and forth with Dexter Strickland to test the hand.